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Who needs internal logic when you’re a ghostly grabber?

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 1d

I have very mixed feelings about BLACK PHONE 2, which I think is a very silly movie with no internal logic at all, but is still relatively effective at generating dread. Mostly I just like The Grabber. He's neat! www.thebulwark.com/p/black-phon...

‘Black Phone 2’ Review

Why 'Tron: Ares' Is a Boring Mess

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 2d

Across the Movie Aisle lives! Just like Ares, from TRON: ARES! Hopefully the show with Peter and Alyssa isn't as big a mess as that movie. We also say goodbye to Diane Keaton, who was just great. movieaisle.substack.com/p/why-tron-a...

Plus: RIP, Diane Keaton.

movieaisle.substack.com

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 3d

"The two greatest crime dramas of all time and two of the greatest romantic comedies of all time, in a single decade, all of which have Keaton at their center. Not a bad legacy, particularly when forty-five more years were to follow."

ICYMI @sonnybunch.bsky.social www.thebulwark.com/p/diane-keat...

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 4d

Bulwark Pope Opposes Abomination of AI www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news...

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Citizen Cohn / Jonathan Cohn @citizencohn.bsky.social · 4d

Beautiful assessment and tribute from @sonnybunch.bsky.social

www.thebulwark.com/p/diane-keat...

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 4d

Diane Keaton made The Godfather, one of the greatest films ever made, work. And she did so much more over more than five decades. @sonnybunch.bsky.social: www.thebulwark.com/p/diane-keat...

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 4d

Diane Keaton is the great actress of the 1970s. And also, y’know, the 45 years that followed. RIP. www.thebulwark.com/p/diane-keat...

Tron’s Evolving Vision of the Technological Present

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 5d

As Orwell predicted!

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 5d

The TRON movies aren't very good. But they *are* kind of interesting as a window into how we understand computers and the Internet. www.thebulwark.com/p/trons-evol...

Plus: ‘Network,’ Assigned!

How Orwell Helps Us Remember Truth

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 6d

George Orwell is, sadly, eternally relevant. I talked to Raoul Peck (I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO) about the death of objective truth, Peck's upbringing in Haiti, and more for our chat about his new documentary, ORWELL: 2+2=5. www.thebulwark.com/p/how-orwell...

Raoul Peck on his new essay film, 'Orwell: 2+2=5'

A video game without rules is just boring chaos.

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 8d

TRON: ARES has a couple of neat sequences and works best when it's just an action-packed music video set to Nine Inch Nails. But the movie is just fundamentally misconceived: the draw of these movies is The Grid and being inside a game. Bringing the game to the real world is boring!

‘Tron: Ares’ Review

Dwayne Johnson's 'Smashing Machine'

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 9d

On Across the Movie Aisle this week, Alyssa, Peter, and I discussed the dying production scene in Los Angeles and reviewed THE SMASHING MACHINE. Fun episode, everyone loves Serious Rock. www.thebulwark.com/p/dwayne-joh...

Plus: Some podcast news!

Randolph Scott, Virtuous Loner of the West

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 9d

Well both of those guys were already legit stars at that point in their careers (or at least had had big roles in big movies); I was trying to highlight a few folks who hadn’t made the jump or spent most of their careers as a “oh yeah, that guy” afterwards.

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 9d

Budd Boetticher was by nature a swashbuckler. In his youth, he fought bulls in Mexico. He spent years as a matador before his horrified mother, a society lady back in Evansville, Indiana, arranged a job in Hollywood instead. His westerns hold up: www.thebulwark.com/p/randolph-s...

Lonesomeness, nobility, and anti-machismo: the ‘Ranown’ westerns are an underappreciated treasure of American cinema.

Randolph Scott, Virtuous Loner of the West

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 10d

"Hemingwayesque in their brevity and violent candor, the films are humanistic tragicomedies, with a tenderness and a poetry in their language and assumptions about life."

Hannah Long on the best westerns you never heard of:

Lonesomeness, nobility, and anti-machismo: the ‘Ranown’ westerns are an underappreciated treasure of American cinema.

A Few Good Men: Why Today’s Leaders Sound Like Col. Jessup

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 10d

Haha when I was watching the movie this time I was like “okay this character makes NO SENSE, why is he in this?” And it’s really a vestigial plot point; originally the altered flight logs were supposed to bring Jessup down for real. He needed to deliver that info.

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 10d

Talked A FEW GOOD MEN on the Movie Club this week with @jvl.bsky.social and @sarahlongwell25.bsky.social, which remains one of the all-time "Oh yeah, he's in this" movies. Cruise/Nicholson/Moore, yes, but also Kevin Pollack, JT Walsh, Noah Wyle, Josh Malina, Cuba Gooding Jr, etc. Off the charts!

“All the President’s Men” vs. Trump’s Daily Insanity

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Citizen Cohn / Jonathan Cohn @citizencohn.bsky.social · 10d

This was such an absolute treat

@sonnybunch.bsky.social let me sit in on @thebulwark.com "Movie Club" to discuss one of my all-time favorite films, All the President's Men

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQC7...

Saudi Arabia’s Useful Idiots

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 12d

I honestly don't care THAT much if comedians want to perform in Saudi Arabia, but I do take issue with them being useful idiots for medieval barbarism in an active way. www.thebulwark.com/p/saudi-arab...

Plus: ‘The Smashing Machine,’ Reviewed

How an MTV Prank Helps Explain the Internet

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 13d

Remember TRL? The MTV show where you voted for boy bands? What if I told you that Yourgo Artsitas's documentary on the time the show got hijacked to include a New Kids on the Block video will forever change how you look at the late-90s music scene? www.thebulwark.com/p/how-an-mtv...

Yourgo Artsitas on his documentary short, 'TR(ol)L.'

‘The Smashing Machine’ Review

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The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 13d

"Not to wear my philistine badge too proudly, but my problem with 'The Smashing Machine' may be that it needed to be a bit more formulaic. Formulas are good; formulas work; that’s why they’re formulas."

@sonnybunch.bsky.social reviews: www.thebulwark.com/p/the-smashi...

Some amazing sequences and strong acting, but an uncompellingly messy subject.

‘The Smashing Machine’ Review

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 14d

A thing I don’t know that I’ve ever written before: I wish THE SMASHING MACHINE were slightly *more* formulaic rather than less? www.thebulwark.com/p/the-smashi...

Some amazing sequences and strong acting, but an uncompellingly messy subject.

Kimmel Suspension Triggered MAJOR Disney+ Exodus (w/ Julia Alexander)

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 15d

I broke down the Kimmel cancellation data with Julia Alexander from Puck. Turns out there was a huge spike (around 6x the normal churn rate) that couldn't really be attributed to anything else. Needless to say, that likely played some part in Kimmel's hasty return. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB-L...

“All the President’s Men” vs. Trump’s Daily Insanity

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sonnybunch.bsky.social @sonnybunch.bsky.social · 15d

Had a fun time talking ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN with @jvl.bsky.social and @citizencohn.bsky.social on the movie club. It's streaming on the Criterion Channel and it really is insanely riveting for a movie that's often just dudes talking on phones. Movie stars, baby! www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQC7...